måndag 5 juni 2017

Jumping Jesus and 32 decks to beat

It has been a while since I updated the Decks to Beat page, but I've finally managed to find most of the lists from the last few months. Check 'em out if you want some inspiration.

One thing about decks-to-beat though is that they are by definition decks with winning records at tournaments. The X-0 to X-2 decks of the meta. At the last gathering I played, the Jumping Jesus tournament in Oslo, I e.g. got the chance to battle against an awesome Elephant Tribal deck in the swiss. I also got my only loss in the tournament at the hands of a powerless Red/White deck with Granite Gargoyles. There are lots of cool things to build apart from the "high end piles"; just try to find something that you enjoy playing with. Speaking of the Jumping Jesus tournament, here are some pics from the gathering:

Black Vise had a decent showing here, with many different decks trying to make it work. From my experience so far it mostly seems like Sligh and other versions of MonoRed Burn have gotten a tangible boost from the card. And Stasis. I met a Stasis player in Karlstad who was super happy that he now was able to play his deck without constantly going to time ;) Maze haven't really made any noise yet, but I felt good about cutting my single red card in Project M (a Fireball) and replace it with a second Maze. Don't know if it actually works better, but it looks nicer.

Ok, let's dig into the Decks to Beat.

Oslo Jumping Jesus Tournament Top4
9
players, photos of 4/4 decks. Two years after the Joypad Open, the
second player-hosted 93/94 tournament in Oslo took place. Oslo is a good
city for finding pick-up 93/94 games at the LGS or conventions, but as
tournaments with beer and casual ambiance go, we've been far behind
adjacent cities like Moss and Drammen. Ascension Day looked as good a
time as any for a gathering. Project M managed to take the glorious Jump
in the finals against Nether Void Ponza, getting past Sligh and The
Machine in the semis.

n00bcon 9: World Championships Top8
102
players, photos of 8/8 decks. Players from 13 nationalities and over 30
communities gathered in Gothenburg for the ninth annual n00bcon and
World championship of 93/94 Magic. The Beasts of Borgadan of London
faced off against The Lords of the Pit from Chicago, the Time Boaks of
Yekatrineburg battled fiercely against the Kanel Fireballs from Varberg.
In the end, we had the road warrior Icelander slinging against Hashi
from the Växjö Team Kaffebryggers in the finals. The Deck had a big
showing in the (fairly sober) hands of old pros from the 90s, but in the
end Black Disaster stood victorious hoisting the Giant Shark.

n00bcon Training Day Top4
10
players, photos of 4/4 decks. The weekend before n00bcon, Gordon and
Paddan gathered players from the Stockholm area to test out their decks,
or just get a chance to play some sweet Magic for those in the area who
could not make it to the championship this year. Cermak and his UGW Zoo
took the trophy again, cementing him as the new rookie of the year. Two
different builds of Power Monolith and a Machine Head Ponza round off
the top4.

Arvika Festival 3 Top8
47
players, photos of 8/8 decks (one might be incorrect). The Giant Shark
of BSK had swimmed to Arvika, and their 3rd Festival became their
grandest yet. Armageddon did a real showing at this gathering, with
three of the four players reaching the semifinals playing multiple
geddons in their piles. Apart from a couple of Erhnamgeddons and UWG
Zoo, we had Power Monolith, The Beast, The Deck, UG Beatdown and
Artifact Aggro in the top8.

Kort i Kubik n00bcon qualifier Top4
10
players, photos of 4/4 decks. Players from Arvika and surroundings
gathered at Kort i Kubik to have a good time and decide one of the
community's last slots for n00bcon. As always, the tech was aplenty. The
winning deck in the swiss was a true Goblin deck, playing rarely seen
cards like Goblin Hero, but in the end KungMarkus's URB counter/discard
deck took the trophy after defeating UGW Zoo in the finals. Monoblack
rounded off the top4.

LepreCon 2 Top4
13
players, photos of 4/4 decks. About a year after the first 93/94 FNM,
players gathered in the Leprecaun Pub in Karlstad once again to drink
Guinness, eat meat and play oldschool for FNM foils. Deadguy Ale managed
to snatch the victory from Troll Disco in the end, leaving two very
different builds of Kird Ape decks in the semis.

On the "inspirational decks" note, I suggest checking out Eternal Central this month. They do an Old
School June promotion where Jaco and the other guys post a new 93/94 deck tech every day. Also, I highly recommend the latest episode
of the Tusk Talk podcast, where Danny Friedman joins to talk about Old
School.

This coming weekend I'm traveling to Stockholm to sling spells at the Ivory Cup. Hope to see a bunch of you there!

2 kommentarer:

Hi! The mats were a very limited run only available at n00bcon 9. A total of 80 were hand-made, and no more will be created, so they are kinda hard to get at this point. I assume that they way to get one is to try and find someone who got it at n00bcon 9 and see if that person is willing to sell his or hers.

There's a blurry picture here btw: http://oldschool-mtg.blogspot.no/2017/04/pictures-from-n00bcon-9.html. I can see if I can snap a better one ;)